The Gensler Symposium (go/gensler for more information) is sponsored by the Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies and presents the following speakers as part of a week-long Symposium:
Tuesday, April 15, 4:30 p.m., Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room
I am NOT that Hungry: Creative Resistance, Black Queers, and Family
Lecture by Nikki Young, Assistant Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies & Religion, Bucknell University
Capitalism, as an economic system, creates and maintains capitalist family values, which operate through private/nuclear ownership and dominion, (singular) male leadership, inherent inequality within relationships, and the moral subjugation of dependents. This value system, in concert with the oppressive social constructions of race, gender, and sexuality, works to deprive black queers of a recognizable moral subjectivity. Through a process that I have called creative resistance, many black queers disrupt the disciplinary power within the capitalist family. They challenge (a) technologies of normalization that limit human possibility and relationships, (b) norms that subjugate diverse expressions of identities and selves; and (c) structures that foster unequal and oppressive relationship dynamics. In this presentation, I will describe the ethical framework through which black queers practice creative resistance, revision family dynamics, and imagine relational possibilities.
Thursday, April 17, 4:30 – 6 p.m., Robert A. Jones ’59 Conference Room
The Tolerance Trap: How God, Genes, and Good Intentions Are Sabotaging Gay Equality
Lecture by Suzanna Walters, Director of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University
In her talk, Professor Walters challenges received wisdom about gay identities and gay rights, arguing that we are not “almost there,” but on the contrary have settled for a watered-down goal of tolerance and acceptance rather than a robust claim to full civil rights. Drawing on a vast array of sources both popular and more scholarly, Professor Walters demonstrates how the low bar of tolerance demeans rather than ennobles both gays and straights alike.